Former exotic dancer gets 7 years for sex with 16-year-old boy

CLEARWATER — A one-time dancer at Baby Dolls Lounge, an exotic dance club in Clearwater, pleaded guilty today to charges she had sex with a boy younger than 16, and was sentenced to more than seven years in prison.

Lauralee M. Beckham, 28, of 5130 17th Ave. S., Gulfport, was arrested last year on a charge of lewd and lascivious battery on a child younger than 16. The boy’s father alerted authorities to the consensual sex he said his son was having with her for about two weeks, the Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office said at the time.

At the time, the sheriff’s office said she was unemployed. But on her Facebook page she listed her occupation as a dancer at Baby Dolls.

Today, Beckham was sentenced as a sexual offender and as a habitual offender. She was sentenced to 86.4 months in prison, with credit for 85 days served at the Pinellas County Jail.

In July 2010, Beckham served 14 months in state prison for forgery and possession of controlled substances, according to the Department of Corrections website. She was released in May 2011.